More Articles

View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoTom Dodge | DISPATCHInvestigators are trying to determine what caused the fire that destroyed this wood-frame house at 13050 Shell Beach Rd. N.E. near Buckeye Lake.

Five others escaped the fire at 13050 Shell Beach Rd. N.E. that was reported about midnight. The
couple’s bodies were found together near a bathroom, Phalen said.

State fire marshal investigators have not established the cause of the fire or where it started.
They said that multiple space heaters were found in the house and many electrical outlets had
multiprong adapters that allowed extension cords to be used for the space heaters, which were
located near combustible materials and other devices.

The Claggs had lived in the single-story, wood-frame home “forever,” along with their daughter
Terie L. Maharg, 41; her son, Todd E. Maharg II; and her long-time companion Michael J. Miller, 47,
said Linda Flaherty, a cook at the Olde Canal Restaurant in nearby Millersport where Terie Maharg
has waitressed for about 10 years.

“Butch was everybody’s buddy, very well-liked, a lot of friends,” Flaherty said.

Authorities have visited the Clagg home before.While attempting to serve an arrest warrant on
Aug. 23 on a man wanted for trafficking methamphetamine, who was known to visit the home,
investigators with the Fairfield-Hocking Major Crimes Unit stumbled across a live grenade booby
trap guarding the entry to the couple’s garage, unit Cmdr. Eric Brown said yesterday.

The Claggs, who were unaware of the booby trap, were evacuated from their house while the
authorities summoned the Franklin County sheriff’s office bomb squad, Brown said.

The bomb specialists arrived with a robot, which was deployed to fetch the live grenade and
carry it across the road and into a farm field where it was detonated, Brown said.

The authorities arrested Todd Maharg, 22, and charged him with criminal possession of an
explosive device, a third-degree felony punishable by a maximum of 36 months in prison. The case is
pending.

Investigators were puzzled about why the garage door was rigged with the booby trap. When they
poked around inside the garage, they found nothing of value, Brown said.

The drug trafficker they were seeking was not found at the house, he said.

Yesterday morning, Milton J. Clagg II, 37, sifted through the charred ruins of his parents’ home
soon after firefighters and deputies cleared the scene. He declined to talk to a reporter.

Clagg and Todd Maharg were at the house when the fire started and have been interviewed by
sheriff’s detectives, Phalen said.

Phalen refused to identify the other three people who survived the fire, however, until
detectives have had a chance to talk to them.

The Claggs’ bodies were sent to the Licking County coroner’s office for autopsies, said
Battalion Chief Rob Robertson of the Millersport Fire Department.